The colossal Puchi’s massive body was nothing more than a clumsy punching bag before Wrath.
Every flicker of that azure-flame-wrapped figure tore horrifying gashes in the fungal flesh.
Only its astonishing regeneration kept it from being instantly destroyed.
Blow after blow blasted huge chunks of mycelium away. Number Four desperately regenerated while taking a beating. The once-majestic Puchi shape was unrecognizable, reduced to a giant, battered ball of mycelium rolling pitifully across the battlefield.
Scattered fungal debris piled into mountains, larger in volume than the original giant Puchi.
Number Four was filled with grievance.
It didn’t understand.
For the first time it had such tremendous power and a worthy opponent. Two joys overlapping should have brought even more joy.
This should have been a dreamlike moment of glory.
So why… why had it turned out like this?
Wrath’s power continued to climb.
Even without technique, relying purely on brute force, the giant-beast Puchi’s regeneration could no longer keep up with the destruction.
Endless regeneration consumed massive mana. [Regeneration] and [Mycelial Reconstruction], both mana-dependent, failed first.
Only [Life Essence] remained, creating life force from nothing, but without its two little brothers’ support, it couldn’t hold against peak Wrath alone.
With one final heavy punch, Number Four’s miserable, glory-less mission finally ended.
Having finally killed the unkillable Puchi, Wrath shook her energy-spewing head, as if suddenly remembering unfinished business.
She took another step toward Alama.
Crack.
She looked back. Her left foot remained behind. The azure flames within died. The shattered shell, unsupported, crumbled into dust and scattered in the wind.
Then the arms, torso, head… no earth-shaking explosion. Like burnt-out firewood, she quietly went out.
Panel gone. Definitely dead.
But for the first time, Lin Jun encountered remains—or rather, dust—he didn’t dare decompose.
He had never decomposed another Sin bearer.
Logically, as a title, the Seven Sins should be unplunderable by [Greed].
But what if?
He had watched Wrath’s terror the entire time. Even with his powerful soul, he couldn’t survive that kind of burning.
And why burn the soul at all? To destroy the world?
Lin Jun didn’t want to touch Wrath, but Wrath came to him anyway.
Dust blown by the wind settled on the remaining fungal mat.
【Acquired: Seven Sins of Wrath】
When the line appeared on his panel, Lin Jun’s entire mushroom went blank.
A wave of absurdity crashed over him, followed immediately by terror.
Lin Jun reacted instantly. He seized control of Xiao Xi—who was still reorganizing troops and planning to mop up the battlefield.
He burst through the door and frantically stuffed ice sugar and “red wine” into his mouth.
Sweet crystals and crimson liquid mixed, spilling from the corners.
“Eat more, little mushroom.”
Lin Jun froze mid-stuffing. He released control amid Xiao Xi’s furious snarling.
Who was talking to him?
And calling him mushroom instead of Puchi?
That thought felt familiar. He had heard it in the mist!
He checked his panel again.
【Seven Sins of Wrath: Meteor-like Strength (Conditions not met – Inactive)】
Seeing “Inactive,” Lin Jun let out a huge sigh of relief. He had genuinely feared spontaneously combusting.
Wrath currently appeared gray on his panel, dim like a skill sealed by [Envy].
But what concerned Lin Jun were the three new lines of numbers.
【153345】
【546433875】
【9453412779】
They fluctuated slightly with no explanation.
Lin Jun couldn’t understand their meaning. They reminded him of the meaningless number floods in the abyss.
But this clearly wasn’t abyssal; it was Wrath’s influence.
Recalling the mysterious voice in the mist and its “eat more” (clearly not referring to sugar), then looking at the corpses strewn from Threehill City to the ambush point, and remembering Wrath had come from the mist…
Was Wrath… here to deliver him a meal?
Was something in the mist watching him the whole time?
Damn it!
Lin Jun hated being manipulated like a puppet.
It was time to make contact with the mist…
Of course, life went on. Meals couldn’t be skipped.
He wasn’t the type of idiot who’d refuse free skills and experience out of spite.
Without accelerating, mycelium naturally spread across the battlefield.
The rich nutrients even caused the fungal mat to grow into a vast mushroom forest in the following days.
Wrath’s arrival had been a natural disaster, annihilating the main forces of both sides.
Two demon dukes exploded. Threehill City destroyed. The Archbishop sacrificed.
Yet many still survived.
Blood Prince Visarius, after Wrath turned toward Threehill City, had used his last drop of [Blood of the Closest Kin] to regenerate. Carrying the dying, armless Earn, he fled into the sky.
Archbishop Ditas had died, but the holy light he released in his final moment hadn’t been for attack; it became countless rays of light rain that fell over Threehill City’s warriors.
Though most human soldiers still perished in the collapsing city, a considerable number survived in the rubble and, after Wrath left, helped each other climb out.
Among them was Fifteen, tightly clutching his master’s shortsword.
Though the demon army’s core was slaughtered, scattered survivors were plentiful.
Regardless, the war meant to destroy the kingdom could no longer continue.
Unless the Emperor stripped defenses from other fronts, Sigismund’s still-reorganizing army was the Empire’s only remaining force capable of facing humanity.
The much-diminished army could continue south and cause more suffering, but annihilating the kingdom was now beyond them.
The Empire’s east was under dwarf attack. The north suffered unnatural, apocalyptic cold.
And what kept Mortis awake at night: the previous Demon King had broken free!
This threat outweighed even the current Hero. Elite blood guards were dispatched everywhere to hunt for clues.
Thus, the war that had cost both sides so dearly came, for now, to a halt.
【Harvest Phase – Complete】
(End of Chapter)